


My Apple Tree, My Brightness

by Miri Cleo (miri_cleo)



Category: Law and Order SVU - Fandom
Genre: F/F, Femslash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-05-11
Updated: 2010-05-11
Packaged: 2017-10-09 09:57:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/85947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miri_cleo/pseuds/Miri%20Cleo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Olivia does some reflecting</p>
            </blockquote>





	My Apple Tree, My Brightness

Olivia walked through the crime scene as if it were a bad dream. Every day in the SVU she saw something horrible, but it had been quite some time since the unit had been called to a scene as gruesome as this. The blood stained the walls, the floor; she couldn't avoid walking in it—just as her eyes couldn't avoid the bodies of the slaughtered children. Years on a job like this numbed a person, but Olivia knew she could never be numb to a sight like this.

It was a daycare…thirty kids under the age of five. Olivia gazed down at the cold body of an infant smothered in its crib. A mobile of smiling suns, moons, and stars hung above it—it was still spinning and playing Brahms' lullaby.

Involuntarily, Olivia shut her eyes and clenched her jaw, but the lullaby's notes still haunted the air. She felt a hand on her shoulder—Elliot. Without opening her eyes, Olivia put her hand on his, knowing she'd seen worse, that she would see worse.

"I need some air."

"There's a garden," Elliot said softly, letting his hand slide from her shoulder. "It's clear out there."

At first, Olivia did not really see the garden; her eyes were busy scanning it for any bodies, evidence…she couldn't help but expect something to destroy its serenity. When her eyes finally rested, it was on an apple tree. Tiny apples were budding among its branches; it stood alone in the center of the little courtyard, and Olivia was transfixed. A ray of sunshine glinted through its branches; Olivia was struck not by its beauty but by its life.

It made her think of Alex. The bright sunshine peeked in and out of the tree's leaves, making the shadows on the worn cobblestone floor ripple like water. Olivia thought of how she would force herself to walk through Central Park on the paths she and Alex used to take. Then, too, the sun would play amidst the shadows. Sometimes the feelings of its warmth on her face would make Olivia forget she was so terribly alone.

Those moments were her only spots of brightness for a long time. This little garden was its own little world of warmth; it gave Olivia hope to find it in the middle of something so cold.


End file.
